Jagex acquisition won’t lead to RuneScape’s business models changing, CEO confirms

(Image credit: Jagex Ltd)

The CEO of Jagex, Phil Mansell, has reassured players of the developer and publisher’s massively multiplayer online role-playing games, RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, that the company being acquired won’t negatively impact the games. Namely, "there are no intentions of changing our [games’] business models.”

In case you missed it, on Friday, February 9, it was confirmed that Jagex was being sold by investment firm Carlyle to CVC Capital Partners and Haveli Investments. A news release described CVC as “a leading global private markets manager,” with “approximately €188 billion [around $202.5 billion or £160.5 billion] of assets under management.”

Meanwhile, Haveli is a private equity firm which launched a “Gaming Fund” in 2022. It’s previously invested in Dead by Daylight studio Behaviour Interactive and Omeda Studios - the developer behind the early-access multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Predecessor.

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Over on Twitter / X after the news was announced, Mansell shared a statement in which he reiterated Jagex’s “commitment” to its games and their communities.

“I reassure you of our commitment to our games and you, our communities. We will not compromise the integrity of our games and there are no intentions of changing our [games’] business models,” Mansell wrote. “Players will remain at the heart of what we do, and we will continue to live the values that make these worlds iconic and unique.

“If anything, this drives us to want to do better for our players, to do more to grow the communities and strengthen the universe of RuneScape further,” he continued. “There are some fantastic adventures ahead and the community is a huge part of that journey.”

pic.twitter.com/4afma8iStxFebruary 9, 2024

When the buyout of Jagex was announced, the managing partner and head of CVC’s sports, media and entertainment team, Nick Clarry, stated that the acquisition will “help realize the full potential of Jagex over the years ahead.”

This will be done by “continuing to improve the existing RuneScape games, the accessibility to games on various platforms, and reinvesting into new IP content to create the exciting games of tomorrow,” he added. It remains to be seen what this will look like in practice.

For more games like RuneScape, be sure to check out our lists of the best MMORPGs, as well as the best MMOs.

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.